Women who use dating apps are more likely to suffer from eating disorders, scientists reveal

WOMEN who use dating apps are more likely to suffer from eating disorders, a study has revealed.

Shocking new research has revealed women trying to find love on apps are making themselves sick and not eating for 24 hours in a bid to make themselves thinner.

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Nearly half of women in the study admitted they hadn't eaten for at least a dayCredit: Getty - Contributor

Scientists investigating a possible link between dating app use and ‘disordered eating’ found women are 26.9 times more likely to control their weight, when compared to those who don’t swipe.

Published in the Journal of Eating Disorders, a team from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston asked 1,726 people about their dating app use and weight control.

They focused on six unhealthy weight control behaviours (UWCBs), including self-induced vomiting, laxative use, fasting – not eating for at least a day - and diet pill use.

Of those who had recently used an app, 44.8 per cent of women confessed they’d fasted in the last 12 months to try and keep their weight down.

Unhealthy weight control behaviours examined

vomiting

laxative use

fasting

diet pill use

muscle building supplement use

use of anabolic steroids

More than one-fifth of women admitted they had thrown up to try and control their weight, while 24 per cent of women said they’d used laxatives as a method of weight loss.

Dr Alvin Tran, lead author of the research, said: “When comparing those who do not use dating apps to those who do, we found that dating app users had significantly elevated odds of engaging in the six unhealthy weight control behaviours we investigated.”

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Women on apps are more than 20 times more likely to control their weightCredit: Getty - Contributor

While he added they didn’t know if the participants had tried to control their weight before using apps, he worried "that the use of these image- and appearance-focused services could exacerbate these behaviours."

He said that more research was needed in this area, added: "With the tremendous growth in dating app usage in the US, and an increasing number of studies linking their use to body image concerns and UWCBs, there is a need to further understand how dating apps influence health behaviours and outcomes."

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